Industrywide Issues

WV Bill Triples Conventional Well Royalty Payments if Made Late

West Virginia House Bill (HB) 4292 attempts to close a loophole affecting landowners and mineral rights owners with a conventional oil or gas well. Royalties from conventional O&G wells are typically small, as little as $40-$50 per month. Some energy companies (hopefully very few) that own the wells are intentionally late with royalty payments or…

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NYMEX Henry Hub Futures Price Crash Continues – Closed at $1.77

We’re sad to have to report on yet another down day of the NYMEX Henry Hub natural gas futures contract. Yesterday, the NYMEX price closed at $1.77/MMBtu, the lowest closing price for the “front month” contract in 3 1/2 years (since Monday, July 27, 2020). Yesterday’s closing price breaks through the latest “floor” of $1.80,…

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EIA’s Outlook for Natural Gas Spot Price in 2024 and 2025

We report today in a companion story about the crash in the NYMEX price to $1.77/MMBtu that NGI’s Spot Gas National Average jumped 36.5 cents to $2.115 yesterday based on winter weather forecasts in some states. What will the Henry Hub spot price (not the futures price, but the physically traded spot price) average for…

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EIA Feb DPR: Production Drop Continues in M-U, but Slows

The latest monthly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Drilling Productivity Report (DPR) for February, issued yesterday (below), shows EIA believes shale gas production across the seven major plays tracked in the monthly DPR for March will decrease production from the prior month of February. This is the eighth month in a row that EIA has…

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Desperate Antis Ask Va. Regulators to Block Work on 99% Done MVP

Last Thursday, 29 far-left nutball groups wrote Mike Rolband, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), demanding that he issue a stop work order for the 99% completed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) due to “repeated and widespread violations and damage to waterbodies and private property.” This isn’t the first time these groups have…

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Boston LNG Import Terminal to Remain Open IF Mass. Approves Deal

In early December, MDN updated you on the very real possibility that Everett LNG import terminal (Boston area), which accepts and regasifies foreign-sourced natural gas, may shut down this May following the closure of New England’s biggest natural gas-fired power plant, the Mystic Generating Station in Everett, MA (see Constellation May Have to Close Boston…

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Penn Twp Zoning Bd Going on Field Trip to Proposed Compressor Site

Hyperion Midstream LLC, a subsidiary of Olympus Energy, is seeking a special exception to a Penn Township (Westmoreland County) zoning ordinance to build a six-generator compressor station along Wilderness Road over the next four years. In early January, Hyperion representatives and witnesses testified at a township zoning hearing in favor of the plan (see Olympus…

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FERC Chairman Willie Phillips Finally Drops “Acting” from Title

The Bidenistas at the White House kept Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Willie Phillips on a VERY short chain for a VERY long time. Phillips was named “Acting” Chairman of FERC in January 2023 when Richard “Dick” Glick exited stage left (see Willie Phillips Takes Over as Acting FERC Chairman, Dick Glick Gone). FERC…

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FERC’s Allison Clements Says She Won’t Seek 2nd Term in June

The most radical Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) commissioner currently serving, Allison Clements (a former lawyer for the uber-radicals of the National Resources Defense Council), told her fellow Democrat leftists at POLITICO that she will not seek re-election to a second term at the commission when her term ends on June 30 of this year….

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Crash in NatGas Price Likely Means Cut in New M-U Drilling

The NYMEX Henry Hub futures price closed lower once again yesterday, at $1.92 (down a nickel from the previous day). These are prices we haven’t seen in three years. The current crash in price is prompting analysts to speculate (with good reason) that it will result in less new gas well drilling in gas-focused plays,…

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Tenaska Buys 6 Northeast PA Gas-Fired Power Plants from IMG

Tenaska, one of the largest privately operated companies in the U.S., announced it has purchased six 21-megawatt (MW) natural gas power plants in Northeast Pennsylvania from IMG Energy Solutions. Tenaska currently operates approximately 22,000 MW of natural gas-fueled and renewables electric generation. We don’t know where the time has gone, but the last time we…

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PA EHB Allows “Narrow” Appeal of 2 Apex Energy Well Permits

A leftist anti-fossil group calling itself Protect PT, in Penn Township (Westmoreland County), PA, backed with big money from Big Green groups, has for years challenged Penn Township ordinances that allow Apex Energy and Huntley & Huntley (now Olympus Energy) to drill and operate shale wells. Protect PT finally struck out legally at the Pennsylvania…

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Radicals Push “Secrecy” Narrative re Drilling Under OH State Parks

Anti-fossil fuel zealots (climate catastrophists) have set their sights on blocking drilling and fracking under (not on top of) Ohio’s state-owned land, including several state parks. Their favorite tactic is to lie and smear the companies that seek to do such drilling. One tiny problem (for the zealots): they don’t know which companies are bidding…

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New Federal & State Methane Emissions Regs Discourage PA Drilling

There is no doubt that recently issued regulations by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) aimed at reducing methane emissions are having a deleterious effect on the Marcellus industry in the Keystone State. The Bidenistas are proposing a huge tax on oil and gas drillers that will…

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Roadmap Released for Trump to Reverse Biden Climate Policies

Dozens of conservative organizations have banded together to provide Trump a road map — known as Project 2025 — if he prevails in November. It outlines a series of steps that the former president could take to (among other things) reverse the climate actions taken by the Biden administration. The Washington-based Heritage Foundation (fantastic organization!)…

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